Flat share, female or non binary only

[TheDuchessOfBeddington]

I live in a popular for students city, and have so far seen two adverts for flat shares requesting female OR non-binary flat mates.

To my mind this means woman, OR women or men who consider themselves non binary, therefore what would be the point of requiring flat mates to be women in the first place?

When I was a student a lot of flat shares were women only, which I can personally understand as it could be a very different environment in a mixed sex flat.

I suppose what I’m trying to ask is, are young female students today feeling ‘forced’ to include non-binary people in their flat share? What is the difference between a young woman who is non-binary and a young man who is non-binary?

Forgive me my head is hurting trying to figure this out!

Do they really want a female flatmate though? Or do they want to attract 'people like us', in terms of values and attitudes? I read it as the latter. Like saying 'alternative lifestyles welcome' 20-30 years ago.

But I can see how it could easily mean 'we feel we can't say women-only, because people will give us shit about that' (which is true - the type of twatty, pedantic 'men's rights defending' little boys who see anything not for them as a red flag and just can't help themselves from harassing people, would be bound to get in touch) .

They mean they want a female housemate but don't want to look transphobic.